Even though the boys officially had been adopted in 2012 after looking at photos, they weren’t allowed to come to the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo because of bureaucratic red tape on both sides of the ocean.

International adoptions are complicated, and getting U.S. visas can take a long time, but in 2013 the DRC suspended adoptions, preventing more than a thousand children adopted by foreigners from leaving.

The couple has six other children, three of whom are adopted. They’ve come to expect painfully long processes for international adoptions, but the tearful hugs at the airport gate March 1, are a powerful reminder of why it was all worth the wait.

(WATCH the video below)

In 2012 (yes, you read that correctly...2012), we started the adoption process to bring home our two precious sons from the Democratic Republic of Congo. March 1, 2016 11:45pm...